This invention relates generally to the rendering of tri-level latent electrostatic images visible and more particularly to the prevention of development of the edges of a change retentive surface outside of the image area.
In the practice of conventional xerography, it is the general procedure to form electrostatic latent images on a xerographic surface by first uniformly charging a charge retentive surface such as a photoreceptor. Only the imaging area of the photoreceptor is uniformly charged. The image area does not extend across the entire width of the photoreceptor. Accordingly, the edges of the photoreceptor are not charged. The charged area is selectively dissipated in accordance with a pattern of activating radiation corresponding to original images. The selective dissipation of the charge leaves a latent charge pattern on the imaging surface corresponding to the areas not exposed by radiation.
This charge pattern is made visible by developing it with toner by passing the photoreceptor past a single developer housing. The tone is generally a colored powder which adheres to the charge pattern by electrostatic attraction. The developed image is then fixed to the imaging surface or is transferred to a receiving substrate such as plain paper to which it is fixed by suitable fusing techniques.
In tri-level, highlight color imaging, unlike conventional xerography, the image area contains three voltage levels which correspond to two image areas and to a background voltage area. One of the image areas corresponds to non-discharged (i.e. charged) areas of the photoreceptor while the other image areas correspond to discharged ares of the photoreceptor.
The concept of tri-level, highlight color xerography is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,929 issued in the name of Gundlach. The patent to Gundlach teaches the use of tri-level xerography as a means to achieve single-pass highlight color imaging. As disclosed therein the charge pattern is developed with toner particles of first and second colors. the toner particles of one of the colors are positively charged and the toner particles of the other color are negatively charged. In one embodiment, the toner particles are supplied by a developer which comprises a mixture of triboelectrically relatively positive and relatively negative carrier beads. The carrier beads support, respectively, the relatively negative and relatively positive toner particles. Such a developer is generally supplied to the charge pattern by cascading it across the imaging surface supporting the charge pattern. In another embodiment, the toner particles are presented to the charge pattern by a pair of magnetic brushes. Each brush supplies a toner of one color and one charge. In yet another embodiment, the development systems are biased to about the background voltage. Such biasing results in a developed image of improved color sharpness.
In highlight color xerography as taught by Gundlach, the xerographic contrast on the charge retentive surface or photoreceptor is divided three, rather than two, ways as is the case in conventional xerography. The photoreceptor is charged, typically to 900v. It is exposed imagewise, such that one image corresponding to charged image areas (which are subsequently developed by charged-area development, i.e. CAD) stays at the full photoreceptor potential (V.sub.cad or V.sub.ddp, shown in FIG. 1a). The other image is exposed to discharge the photoreceptor to its residual potential, i.e. V.sub.dad or V.sub.c (typically 100v) which corresponds to discharged area images that are subsequently developed by dischargedarea development (DAD) and the background areas exposed such as to reduce the photoreceptor potential to halfway between the V.sub.cad and V.sub.dad potentials, (typically 500v) and is referred to as V.sub.white or V.sub.w. The CAD developer is typically biased about 100v(V.sub.bb, shown in FIG. 1b) closer to V.sub.cad than V.sub.white (about 600v), and the DAD system is biased about 100v (V.sub.cb, shown in FIG. 1b) closer to V.sub.dad than V.sub.white (about 400v).
In a tri-level highlight color imaging system where DAD development precedes CAD, the edges of the photoreceptor are developed with toner thereby causing contamination of the developer materials and other machine components such as belt hole timing sensors. Developer material contamination results in color developer mixing with the black developer in the black housing and the black developer mixing with the color developer in the color developer housing. This is because these edges are not charged and, therefore, are more positive than the negative toner contained in the DAD developer housing, thus attracting the toner to the non-charged edges. The problem of edge development is also present in conventional xerography when DAD is employed.